Training Pre-season updates 2025.

[Apex36]

Any school of thought that currently rates Reef above Howe as a KPD should be shut down.

You should go to training and say that to Fly, since it’s becoming pretty clear that the direction they’re heading is Reef as a key defender and Howe as the loose 3rd tall.

I’m sure he’ll be very receptive to your thoughts.

 

[Peters_Nuts]

Any school of thought that currently rates Reef above Howe as a KPD should be shut down.

Hasn’t even proven to be above Frampton yet. Though hope he does.

 

[sr36]

You should go to training and say that to Fly, since it’s becoming pretty clear that the direction they’re heading is Reef as a key defender and Howe as the loose 3rd tall.

I’m sure he’ll be very receptive to your thoughts.

How has that become clear?

 

[Jen2310]

 

[ElliottsMaggies]

Warming it up

 

[sr36]

Had to do it didn’t you….

It's so obvious a jinx that it will fool the footy gods and they'll treat it as reverse psychology making it a reverse jinx.

 

[Magnanimous]

Did Trump mention Naicos during his inauguration speech?

"There will only be 2 Genders, and 1 Nick Daicos"

On SM-A556E using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Matrix10]

Any school of thought that currently rates Reef above Howe as a KPD should be shut down.

Add in Maynard

 

[Scodog10]

Add Moore into the must have a good run with injury bracket.

He was in my thinking, but I don’t view him at the same level as the other 4 anymore because he’s nowhere near best by position in the league. Taylor, McGovern, Weitering and Andrews are far and away the best KPD’s league wide and Moore’s importance to us is more about our dearth of alternatives. I also don’t think any of our premiership competitors have the KPF cattle to bother us without Moore (I don’t rate Carlton and the Dogs being the obvious exception if everything clicks) and even when teams have got a hold of us it has rarely turned the match under Fly.

Controversial maybe, but I now have him more as one that it’d be nice to have at his best across a season than an absolute must for us to go all the way. In truth someone filling the void left by Murphy is more crucial, IMO. Perhaps the challenge also needs to be thrown to him to improve on what he did in 2024.

I think anyone suggesting any of the other 4 can be replaced by lesser output need only look at the outputs of Long, Bytel, Sullivan and Macrae to see how important gun ground level players are.

 

[Scodog10]

How has that become clear?

I’m curious as well? It feels to me like a guy 5 years in who was borderline retained on the list with zero experience at senior level in the role would be highly unlikely to move past Howe in Fly’s eyes without a ball kicked in anger.

FWIW I remember Fly being upbeat on Macrae in Jan and Feb of 2024.

 

[sr36]

He was in my thinking, but I don’t view him at the same level as the other 4 anymore because he’s nowhere near best by position in the league. Taylor, McGovern, Weitering and Andrews are far and away the best KPD’s league wide and Moore’s importance to us is more about our dearth of alternatives. I also don’t think any of our premiership competitors have the KPF cattle to bother us without Moore (I don’t rate Carlton and the Dogs being the obvious exception if everything clicks) and even when teams have got a hold of us it has rarely turned the match under Fly.

Controversial maybe, but I now have him in our nice to have at his best across a season than absolutely necessary for us to go all the way. In truth someone filling the void left by Murphy is more crucial, IMO. Perhaps the challenge also needs to be thrown to him to improve on what he did in 2024.

I think anyone suggesting any of the other 4 can be replaced by lesser output need only look at the outputs of Long, Bytel, Sullivan and Macrae to see how important gun ground level players are.

I get what you mean, but to me the biggest value of guys like Moore, MacGovern and Andrews is that they're such good interceptors that they force teams to change the way they move the ball.

Moore's positioning is so aggressive that he often gets burnt, but at the same time that positioning probably makes teams second guess their entries more than others do.

Its hard to judge, but I'd still have him up there with the others, even though he has some bad games and gets burnt when we can't maintain pressure. He's the one I'd want when the whips are cracking in a big game and the entries are getting messy.

 

[Fruit]

I get what you mean, but to me the biggest value of guys like Moore, MacGovern and Andrews is that they're such good interceptors that they force teams to change the way they move the ball.

Moore's positioning is so aggressive that he often gets burnt, but at the same time that positioning probably makes teams second guess their entries more than others do.

Its hard to judge, but I'd still have him up there with the others, even though he has some bad games and gets burnt when we can't maintain pressure.

Great post. Moore plays aggressively and I’m sure it’s under instruction from the coaching staff like all our players would be.

When we turn the ball over, which we did last year, it comes back much quicker and it’s easy to see how you can get caught out.

With Josh going back and Houston added to our backline I would hope that we hold on to the ball more often when transitioning out of defence which will help our defenders reset better.

 

[Apex36]

How has that become clear?

“Becoming”

They’re using Reef alongside Moore in match sim from reports and he seems to be the one standing out.

Regardless, your delusion of Howe being a key defender under any circumstance outside of an in match scenario where a defender goes down, or a 2018 scenario where literally all of our actual key defenders got injured is still a good laugh.

 

[Apex36]

I’m curious as well? It feels to me like a guy 5 years in who was borderline retained on the list with zero experience at senior level in the role would be highly unlikely to move past Howe in Fly’s eyes without a ball kicked in anger.

FWIW I remember Fly being upbeat on Macrae in Jan and Feb of 2024.

As a player, absolutely not. But if Frampton or Dean can get picked ahead of Howe as a key tall so he can play his intercept role there’s no reason Reef can’t either. My intention was less about Reef and more about the fact that Fly clearly prefers Howe in a non-key role, hence any of those 3 being “ahead” of him in that sense.

 

[TradeDraft]

I'm starting to think the same about Dean. When he did have the ball he kicked it out of bounds or past the man. He obviously doesn't have the pace, but he had some okay games last year, there was always the hope he would take the next step like Reef seems to be heading towards.

Sounds like Reef gone past Dean

Hope for Dean are Low at the Moment

 

[Jen2310]

Sounds like Reef gone past Dean

Hope for Dean are Low at the Moment

IMV, Reef is at the top of the pecking order. But he'll still need to put his training form into pre-season games. That's the next step.

 

[sr36]

“Becoming”

They’re using Reef alongside Moore in match sim from reports and he seems to be the one standing out.

Regardless, your delusion of Howe being a key defender under any circumstance outside of an in match scenario where a defender goes down, or a 2018 scenario where literally all of our actual key defenders got injured is still a good laugh.

2022, a lot of games in 2024?

I view it differently to you - not many teams are playing two big power forwards and one on one marking contests aren't that common. Aerial defenders most common aerial duty is in a pack - and Howe is very good in that situation - clunks it when he gets the oppurtunity - very good at coming over the top and killing contests - very good at peeling off to stop someone else getting caught in a one on one.

 

[Scodog10]

As a player, absolutely not. But if Frampton or Dean can get picked ahead of Howe as a key tall so he can play his intercept role there’s no reason Reef can’t either. My intention was less about Reef and more about the fact that Fly clearly prefers Howe in a non-key role, hence any of those 3 being “ahead” of him in that sense.

I think there’s a lot of supposition here on the basis of training reports from fans.

Sure the other two could also be picked to play that role, but we haven’t seen anything yet to suggest what course we’ll be taking. In Rd 0 for instance I’d have zero faith in McInnes, Dean or Frampton against any of Hogan, Riccardi or Cadman and would much prefer Moore, Howe and Maynard as our three nominal key backs. I just don’t think we’ve seen anything to support your view that Fly et al are warming to that setup. I’d like a full block of pre-season matches and a month of real stuff to consider whether it’s clear that’s the direction we’re taking.

Honestly mate I’m going to try to put up some training reports over the next 8 weeks and they’ll be as worthless as farts in the wind for the season ahead (aside from training numbers) because it’s training…

 

[ElliottsMaggies]

 

[sr36]

I think there’s a lot of supposition here on the basis of training reports from fans.

Sure the other two could also be picked to play that role, but we haven’t seen anything yet to suggest what course we’ll be taking. In Rd 0 for instance I’d have zero faith in McInnes, Dean or Frampton against any of Hogan, Riccardi or Cadman and would much prefer Moore, Howe and Maynard as our three nominal key backs. I just don’t think we’ve seen anything to support your view that Fly et al are warming to that setup. I’d like a full block of pre-season matches and a month of real stuff to consider whether it’s clear that’s the direction we’re taking.

Honestly mate I’m going to try to put up some training reports over the next 8 weeks and they’ll be as worthless as farts in the wind for the season ahead (aside from training numbers) because it’s training…

In terms of the training reports on here, I really like that they tend to focus on kids and blokes returning from injury. They're the doubt and the hope. When Howe, Maynard, Crisp and Checkers are fit, they don't get a mention - and why would they - we know what we've got with them. With the talk of Reef's preaseason and how well he's going and the lack of talk about Maynard, you could easily have him pegged as being ahead of Bruzzy too, if you didn't get the focus of most of the training reports ...

 

[partypie]

Hasn’t even proven to be above Frampton yet. Though hope he does.

Might be setting Reef a fairly low bar to jump over there?

 

[Fat Jesus]

Might be setting Reef a fairly low bar to jump over there?

Frampton helped us hugely in a Premiership win. Reef still miles away from him.

 

[kalex6251]

that has made my day .... watched a few times and just cant help but smile

expect she will dine out on this story with family and friends for a while .... wonderful

 

[Jen2310]

Frampton helped us hugely in a Premiership win. Reef still miles away from him.

You'll be surprised.
It's something you have to see to believe tbf
But he need to put the amazing preseason form into games next month.

 

[Aussie pie]

My god the Reef adulation has started early. “He’s our second best defender already.” Give it a rest he hasn’t even played a game there and he’s only back there because he failed elsewhere.
Can we please have a season where he’s judged on what he actually does not what your imagination thinks he does.

He’s not in the starting defence for me. Moore, Frampton, Howe first for the talls then Dean and Reef but not for the big talls if you get my drift.

Remember last preseason when Finn was going to have a break out year? Let’s just not put bets on Reef for AA just yet ok.